Game : You've just won the lottery

For some reason you bought a lottery ticket, or someone gave you one. You have just won a stupid amount of money, 210 million euros to be exact (the stakes of « Euromillions » on 23 february 2021).
You probably keep a small amount for your own needs or someone close to you who is in need (Who ? What for ?).

Question one : How are you going to spend the rest to Change the World ?
       E.g. :
       1) You give it all to an NGO or some NGO(s), who know exactly what they’re doing and are the best placed to know how to spend it (which one(s) ? Why ?)
       2) You use it to buy or build things, eg/
               • huge swathes of land to leave as completely wild nature reserves, or to ensure it stays in the hands of the indigenous peoples who have always been its stewards (Where ? How ? Who ? Apart from ownership, how do       you protect it from loggers, miners, armies, poachers etc ?),
              • an unethical company, or a company in an unethical industry, to turn it around and make it truly virtuous, green and exemplary (Which one (s) ? How ? What resistance does that provoke ? How does it change the world ?)
              • Permaculture schools and farms all over the world (Where ? Who for /with ? Why there, why them? What are your hoped-for results ?)
              • A new or recent industry, which will have a huge impact on the world economy (What, How ? Why ?)
       3) You create a foundation or an NGO. It invests the money in something which, despite being  truly ethical and truly green, somehow makes a bit of profit. Each year, you distribute the profit in the form of grants to deserving projects
             • Who is on your advisory committee and your jury (people, organisations) ?
             • What grants do you create ? On what themes ? How much for ? What are the conditions ? Who can apply ?

Question two : How do you apply permaculture principles to this problem ?

Make up your own questions and your own rules.

- Create lots of small companies to get the local economy going again.
- Invest in research to develop and build better technology for permaculture.

Oh yes, fantasy millions.
I made that 180 million GBPounds or 250 million USDollars approximately.
I would keep about £120k. or so  I'd like to make an extension to give us a bigger kitchen and utility and get the roof properly insulated. Then give each of my neices and nephews £10k to give them a leg up of their choice.  Maybe more to one of my sisters too, who has had bad luck/choices in her relationships leading to her being a bit less comfortable financially than she deserves to be.
I'll have to think about the other £179 million.  Selfishly I'd like to buy up some of the building plots round here that get turned into tickytacky holiday lets...but not sure about the rest to make a difference on a global scale.

I would probably create a foundation to administer most of it for charitable purposes at home and overseas. Community gardens, local food and food security, skills development. Maybe have a beer with Bill Gates and compare notes; he seems to be doing things that are of practical value.

Really, though, it's more of a nightmare than a fantasy. That much money is poison. Rich people are often very unhappy.

Yup it would be dammned hard work, for sure ! Plus the resposability of getting it right !
I guess the question is :  to what extent - and in what useful ways - could money be used positively, and even used to wreak its own demise as the New God that is worshipped the world over, where money has become an end in itself, as well as the Devil that brings misery and destruction ?

I would start an education foundation to educate people on how to be self sufficient responsibly.

Then I would start a Christian ministry to get the churches involved.

Then I would fund a number of intentional communities to act as examples.

Then take the network professionals from the education foundation, the volunteers of the churches, the examples of the communities and provide funding for them to convert their surrounding neighbors to self sufficient permies.  

Although I'll probably end up doing this anyways, money makes things move much faster.



As much as the idea of "Big Perma" sounds great I think going around the government and traditional big business practices and going directly to the people is better in the long run. Quiet frankly I'm a minimalist so I'd rather share the wealth freely and not try and control it through any foundation but give people the tools to succeed without me and my money.

Getting people to define wealth as not being money but as experiences, human connection and assets that create abundance would be key to the adoption of the permie mindset and revert back to an agrarian God fearing society.

This is what I would do:

1. Split the money in half. One half for me and the other for projects. 105 million would go into saving that one could live off on. Something along the lines of Early Retirement Extreme.

2. The other half would also be in saving but used to support projects and ideas. Something like the TV show Shark Tank. People would have to present ideas and projects along with the amount needed.

3. To apply permaculture principles to this I would contact people who are doing permaculture projects and ask "What do you need?". The first two names on that list would be Paul Wheaton and Geoff Lawton

I don't have a house yet, but I have a design I've been working on for years. I would find a good company and hire them to build it.

A nearby property has developed something of a reputation, because several families in a row who occupied that property were the kind who brought trouble along. Everything from bank fraud to drug addiction, to suspected mafia ties.

Well now it's up for sale again, for just under half a million. There's a lot of acreage attached, some of it really nice. I'd buy that if I could afford it, just so I wouldn't have to deal with new neighbors again.

You probably keep a small amount for your own needs or someone close to you who is in need (Who ? What for ?).
Family (chosen and bio), college and medical debts. I would probably give a chunk just away to friends and loved ones in need or not.
It's worth noting, I would probably invest about 40m right off the bat to fund my future forever and that of everyone I care about, and potentially fund many more projects into the future. 10m would be gifts and donations to small local groups for whom ten thousand makes a big difference - animal shelters, food banks, LGBTQ groups, etc. I would donate to hundreds of these grassroots movements.

Then, at 200m USD (I'm presuming this is after taxes) I can imagine all sorts of things.
-100m to make 100 food forests in major but not huge cities across the US. (So probably not LA or NYC, or most capitals, but all the secondary cities that are cheaper. Cleveland, Detroit, Lexington, etc.)
Where I live, if I had $1m to build a food forest I could buy 50+ acres in the inner city and still afford to put a house on it and plant it as a food forest, live on and maintain it, and offer the excess to the community to feed them, clothe them, promote food sovereignty, fight poverty, teach skills, etc. Imagine doing this across 100 poor/urban cities where houses are being demolished and foreclosed on all across the US.

The other 100+m would go towards starting intentional communities across the US.

Question two : How do you apply permaculture principles to this problem ?
Well, I don't quite. I don't think permaculture on its own encompasses all of our human needs. But I think having a food forest that's easy to maintain and could feed thousands of people with minimal inputs is permaculture in action. It gives a hub for people to learn, it feeds the community, it re-greens cities, etc. I would love to be able to do this, personally.
Intentional communities radically change the way we view the world and interact with our communities. That communal support would be huge and it would spread the money across even more groups making major changes across the USA.

I know this is a very US-centric view. It's cause I live here, it's a major world power, and it's huge. Some people don't realize it actually takes two days of nonstop driving to get from one side to another. And if I can change the USA, there's a real chance that it could be done elsewhere. Every country is a little different and gonna need a little different effort. I can only make do with what I've got. I think change happens best at home.

I could give every young person in the US and EU a copy of 'Building a better world' (Dr Google says about 34 million between 15 and 19) and still have lots $ left.

Nancy Reading wrote:I could give every young person in the US and EU a copy of 'Building a better world' (Dr Google says about 34 million between 15 and 19) and still have lots $ left.

Then this money (at least big part of it) will go to the pocket (a huge one) of Paul Wheaton, and I'm sure he knows how to use it to infect even more brains with permaculture ;)

If not that, I would fund a small permaculture demo site in each city / county / neighborhood /school , to lead by example.

I love all your replies without exception !
I can't single anyone out as having a reply that pleases me more.
What a pleasure to dream of a world where this is happening !
And what a great idea if one of us ever accidentally wins the lottery to start a world mouvement to do these intelligent things with this stupid money !

First I would find a desirable place with a bit of land and mooooove.

Next, my close friends would have all debts paid off, plus enough money to live comfortably the rest of their lives.

The surplus money?

A) I'd set up a network of foundations to serve the young people that age out of the foster care system without safety nets. I can't describe the amount of sorrow I feel that American children are just dumped into the world at age 18 without any family or support system. Imagine how deeply that would hurt a person. American children shouldn't be homeless and unloved, falling victim to traffickers. How many 18 year olds can walk into a living wage job on their 18th birthday? They need help.

B) I'd buy a chunk of land just outside the city limits and set up a "campground" specifically for homeless folks. There would be tiny homes as well as sites for people who choose to live in their vehicles. There would be businesses there, where they could make money as well as sustain themselves. Businesses like vegetable stands, craft stores, restaurant, etc. There would be a laundromat, shower facilities, a kitchen and tornado shelter.

C) I would supply lots of money to organizations so that no "unwanted" animals would need to be euthanized. Instead, since money would be no problem, spaying, neutering and all medical costs would be taken care of, for animals that are in shelters. There would be vehicles and gas money for transports to breed specific rescue groups. There would be money to help people who couldn't afford lots of medical care, but would otherwise be able to take in a pet, so that even more pets would find loving forever homes.

D) All children, at least in my area (nobody has enough money to save the whole world), would have a great Christmas. None would have an empty spot below the tree on Christmas morning, nor would any go hungry on that day.

I'm a bit different.  I would schedule a caterer for home grown food from noon till 10pm.  I would send out a text about noon that said.  The tractor is down and y and I need some serious help here.  If you have any extra time please just show up and help.  As each person would show up I would ask for their cell phone to put away for the night and pay their debt off.  We would hide the vehicles at another farm as people showed up.  At 10 pm I would make an announcement of how much is left and split it even with everybody there.  I would take my share and split it again with my home church.  Hopefully I wouldn't have that much left.  My goal would be to have just enough cash to pay my taxes until I become compost. I think helping people that help others will have the biggest and longest lasting affect on my society.  I feel I already won the lottery being born here.

Christopher Shepherd wrote:I'm a bit different.  I would schedule a caterer for home grown food from noon till 10pm.  I would send out a text about noon that said.  The tractor is down and y and I need some serious help here.  If you have any extra time please just show up and help.  As each person would show up I would ask for their cell phone to put away for the night and pay their debt off.  We would hide the vehicles at another farm as people showed up.  At 10 pm I would make an announcement of how much is left and split it even with everybody there.  I would take my share and split it again with my home church.  Hopefully I wouldn't have that much left.  My goal would be to have just enough cash to pay my taxes until I become compost. I think helping people that help others will have the biggest and longest lasting affect on my society.  I feel I already won the lottery being born here.

I like the way you think.

10% goes to my Church.
Another 10% in savings
Another 10% to my parents
Another 10% would be dedicated  to buying houses in need of repairs, fixing them up, planting food forests on them and selling them. The extra money would be reinvested.
Another 10% would go to my personal permaculture experiments.
Another 10% would be divided among the needy folk I know.
Another 10% would go to reforestation, legal where possible, but I suspect primarily paralegal.
20% would go to buying a large tract of land and developing it to be my family's estate in perpetuity.
5% would buy gold, and a safe place to keep it.
The final little bit would fund my animal breeding projects.

I have to disagree with Doug to a point.  All other  things being equal, i would rather be rich and healthy than poor and sickly.  But, I would keep 200K.  Then I would set up an NPO to disperse SKIP grants through Permies.

I would buy a couple of thousand acres with a river through it and build a community complete with mechanic, weld and wood working shops. I'd build a huge community center where meals and meetings would take place. I'd put in a gym and music room, too.
We would grow row crops and have livestock. The idea would be to feed people in need. Huge gardens where we invite people to come help take care of them in exchange for food. Excess food would be donated to local churches and charities.
Houses on the properties I buy would be renovated and made available for special case people...homeless families, unwed mothers and the like. Exchange work for food and board. For folks who didn't want to sell I'd make them a nice offer of buying their property and letting them just live there as long as they could. Most large land parcel owners are up there in years so this might be very enticing.
I envision a group of about 100 or so with an elected leader. The leader basically keeps us pointed in the right direction with planting and husbandry. The leader is a working position as well.